Stan Goff (b. 1951 in San Diego, California) is a writer, activist, and US Army veteran having served from 1970 to 1996. He is an Anti-imperialist activist, feminist, and socialist. He is the author of the weblog Feral Scholar.
He is the author of the books Hideous Dream, Full-Spectrum Disorder: The military in the New American Century, and Sex & War. He is also a contributor to Huffington Post.
Goff was sent to Vietnam in 1970-71, serving with the 173rd Airborne Brigade as an infantryman. He was sent to the 82nd Airborne in Fort Bragg after a bout of malaria. In 1973, he was honorably discharged at the rank of sergeant. He returned to the Army in 1977, and was assigned to the 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized) as a Private First Class, and re-earned his Sergeant's stripes by 1979. He volunteered for the Ranger School that same year, and was then assigned to 2nd Ranger Battalion in Fort Lewis, Washington.
Goff earned the rank of Staff Sergeant in two years, and reenlisted on condition of reassignment to the Jungle Operations Training Center (JOTC) in Panama, where he worked as a small unit tactics instructor. He volunteered for 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta ( Delta Force) during that assignment, and was eventually reassigned to Delta Force as both "assaulter" and "sniper" for most of the next four years. Goff participated in operations in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Grenada ( Operation Urgent Fury). He participated in the first train-up of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team and the pre-Olympics training of South Korea's 707th Special Forces.
Goff left Delta as a sergeant first class in December 1986, and joined the staff and faculty as one of the few enlisted instructors at West Point. He taught Military Science, served as the NCOIC of the Service Orientation Course, ran the Basic Training Bayonet Assault Course, and developed the Ranger Orientation Program that selected cadets to attend Ranger School during their Junior-Senior summer. He allowed his enlistment to expire in 1987, but rejoined shortly thereafter as a Staff Sergeant (although by 1988-89, Sergeant First Class) assigned to 1st Ranger Battalion as a Platoon Sergeant. He applied for Special Forces training, and became a Special Operation Medical Sergeant.
In 1993, he sought reassignment to 75th Ranger Regiment, as a Special Operations Medical "Crosswalk", and was attached to 3rd Ranger Battalion as part of Task Force Ranger for the catastrophic operation in Mogadishu, Somalia. Goff saw combat there, but was repatriated to Fort Benning before the Bakara firefight after a dispute with a Ranger captain that had verged upon violence. Not long after that, he was promoted to Master Sergeant, which effectively changed his job description from SF Medic to SF Operations Sergeant.
He was then reassigned back to Fort Bragg, to 3rd Special Forces Group, where he was given the task of running a Special Forces team, called an A-Detachment, in this case, Operational Detachment - A (ODA) 354, a military free-fall parachute specialty team. The story of his time with this team, up to and including his retirement from the Army in February 1996 (with special emphasis on Operation Restore Democracy in Haiti in 1994) is recounted in detail in his first book, Hideous Dream - A Soldier's Memoir of the US Invasion of Haiti (Soft Skull Press, 2000).
Stan Goff (b. 1951 in San Diego, California) is a writer, activist, and US Army veteran having served from 1970 to 1996. He is an Anti-imperialist activist, feminist, and socialist. He is the author of the weblog Feral Scholar.
He is the author of the books Hideous Dream, Full-Spectrum Disorder: The military in the New American Century, and Sex & War. He is also a contributor to Huffington Post.
Goff was sent to Vietnam in 1970-71, serving with the 173rd Airborne Brigade as an infantryman. He was sent to the 82nd Airborne in Fort Bragg after a bout of malaria. In 1973, he was honorably discharged at the rank of sergeant. He returned to the Army in 1977, and was assigned to the 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized) as a Private First Class, and re-earned his Sergeant's stripes by 1979. He volunteered for the Ranger School that same year, and was then assigned to 2nd Ranger Battalion in Fort Lewis, Washington.
Goff earned the rank of Staff Sergeant in two years, and reenlisted on condition of reassignment to the Jungle Operations Training Center (JOTC) in Panama, where he worked as a small unit tactics instructor. He volunteered for 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta ( Delta Force) during that assignment, and was eventually reassigned to Delta Force as both "assaulter" and "sniper" for most of the next four years. Goff participated in operations in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Grenada ( Operation Urgent Fury). He participated in the first train-up of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team and the pre-Olympics training of South Korea's 707th Special Forces.
Goff left Delta as a sergeant first class in December 1986, and joined the staff and faculty as one of the few enlisted instructors at West Point. He taught Military Science, served as the NCOIC of the Service Orientation Course, ran the Basic Training Bayonet Assault Course, and developed the Ranger Orientation Program that selected cadets to attend Ranger School during their Junior-Senior summer. He allowed his enlistment to expire in 1987, but rejoined shortly thereafter as a Staff Sergeant (although by 1988-89, Sergeant First Class) assigned to 1st Ranger Battalion as a Platoon Sergeant. He applied for Special Forces training, and became a Special Operation Medical Sergeant.
In 1993, he sought reassignment to 75th Ranger Regiment, as a Special Operations Medical "Crosswalk", and was attached to 3rd Ranger Battalion as part of Task Force Ranger for the catastrophic operation in Mogadishu, Somalia. Goff saw combat there, but was repatriated to Fort Benning before the Bakara firefight after a dispute with a Ranger captain that had verged upon violence. Not long after that, he was promoted to Master Sergeant, which effectively changed his job description from SF Medic to SF Operations Sergeant.
He was then reassigned back to Fort Bragg, to 3rd Special Forces Group, where he was given the task of running a Special Forces team, called an A-Detachment, in this case, Operational Detachment - A (ODA) 354, a military free-fall parachute specialty team. The story of his time with this team, up to and including his retirement from the Army in February 1996 (with special emphasis on Operation Restore Democracy in Haiti in 1994) is recounted in detail in his first book, Hideous Dream - A Soldier's Memoir of the US Invasion of Haiti (Soft Skull Press, 2000).